Beyond the beyond
by zigolo
Summary: People would normally panic after getting thrown into a completely new and foreign world. Arthur just wants to know if this world has any unicorns. Cardverse. Fr/Uk and Us/Uk. a little different take on clished plot.


**A/N;** Greetings all the readers. After reading a lot cardverse stories with Arthur as a main character I wanted to try a little different take on a clished plot. Hopefully I wont's screw anything up.**  
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**Beyond the beyond  
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**Chapter one**

As one might expect from British weather. It had been raining for six days. The ground was wet, the very air was wet, the whole bloody country was soaking _wet_.

Arthur Kirkland had never been accused of being an even tempered man, but even he couldn't remember ever being this irritated.

His footwear and socks had been drenched since the unfortunate morning accident involving a very large puddle. He had somehow gotten involved into an vicious paper airplane battle with Francis "the Frog" Bonnefoy, only to be given detention when one of his planes went astray from its course and hit the teacher instead. It was beyond injustice when the frog went unpunished, even though -and Arthur yelled this to his teacher while pointing at the Frenchman- he had clearly started it.

But no such luck. He was now an hour late. His eldest brother Scott had sent him an angry text whining how he had to go pick Peter from Elementary school, even though it was _Arthur's _responsibility.

All the busses had already left and his blue umbrella did little to cover him from the rain. Afternoon wind felt cold on his skin and he couldn't quite feel his toes. And as if to make the situation even more miserable for him, he was making squishing noises as he walked.

Perhaps it was a high time to consider ditching the jolly but ah, so damn soggy England for awhile. They had deserts in middle east, didn't they? Though he certainly wouldn't say no to Africa. The mere though of warm sun and dry air was enough to lift his spirits. Just as he was imagining himself sipping tea on camel's back, he was startled out of his thoughts by a large truck that sped by.

Driving through a nearby puddle and splashing dirty water all over him first of course.

He stood there for five seconds, face blank, before bursting into loud rage.

"You bloody wanker!" he shook his fist at the car.

In anger he threw his umbrella after the truck but it only got caught by a gust of wind and flew away. He breathed heavily, trying to calm himself. Ignore the bloody truck driver. He was going home to take a hot bath and read one of Kiku's books until this moment was nothing but a unpleasant memory. All was zen.

Then another car flew by and made him just a little bit more drenched.

His right eye was twitching violently and there was an almost insane smile on his lips. Oh, he was going to _murder _that bloody frog for this.

And then a third car sped by.

Drenched to the bone and screaming profanities in his head, he mumbled angrily under his breath about brainless drivers and bloody paper planes. Eliciting weird looks from few people he encountered. God damnit, he would end up drowning before he reached his house if things continued this way.

Deciding to take a shortcut through nearby park. It was a more roundabout rote than he usually took but desperate times called for desperate measures. Hopefully he would manage to reach his home without having to recourse to swimming.

Fresh smell of trees and grass greeted him when he reached the center of the park. If nothing else, rain was good at making things glean. He breathed a lungful of air and shivered a little when a few drops of water ran down his back. It would be just his luck if he caught a cold.

He absently observed the park center. It was void of people save himself. A beautiful fountain stood proudly surrounded by wooden park benches. He took few steps closer and watched a very pretty stone fairy in the middle of the fountain. She was petting a unicorn with a peaceful smile on her face. A goblin was sitting beside her frowning.

Arthur couldn't help smiling, he had always liked this fountain. Whoever designed the stone statues was a absolute genius. You could almost expect the unicorn to start moving or the fairy to bat her eyelashes, so very real they seemed.

His heart skipped a beat when he noticed movement in the fountain. For a few seconds he just stared incomprehensibly without realising what he was looking at.

A human hand was poking out of the fountain. For a single heartbeat he thought someone had fallen into the water but that was impossible. Even if someone was in the fountain the water wasn't deep enough to cover them.

The hand moved as if it was trying to grasp something. Arthur quickly backed away and watched in mild horror as the hand moved. It would touch the fountain's edges and even swept the statues with its fingers.

Arthur took few cautious steps forward, the hand seemed to be coming from the bottom of the fountain which -as Arthur observed with growing curiosity- was glowing softly with blue light.

He had always been fond of fairies and unicorns and all magical things. Even when people had started to tell him he was too old to seriously believe in such childish things he hadn't given up. Even if he had never _seen _anything magical, something inside of him had always insisted that such things still existed.

And this- Arthur watched the hand and the light in amazement- this was a proof. He was seeing it with his own eyes. Even the small fear, that this was some sort of joke was squished. There was no way this was caused by anything other than magic.

The hand seemed to have tired of searching whatever it had been searching and started to sink through the fountain's stone bottom.

Arthur panicked. His first real proof of magic and it was getting away! Had he been in his normal state of mind, he would have certainly thought his next action was as stupid as stupid can be.

He reached out and grasped the hand.

When his brain caught up with his actions he froze on his spot and stared at the hand with wide eyes. The hand had frozen as well and he had a suspicion it was just as surprised by his sudden attack as he was. They stood still for a few moments and Arthur couldn't help but thinking how odd he must look right now. Standing in the rain, holding a seemingly separated limb.

It was beyond ridiculous and more than little scary. He jumped when he felt the hand giving him a tentative squeeze. He stared at it with his mouth hanging open, slightly puzzled by how warm the hand was, before squeezing it carefully back.

The hand pulled him sharply and he tripped over the fountain's edge into the water. He immediately panicked when the water entered his mouth. He was fully submerged and there was no way in hell the fountain could be this deep. He kicked his legs and tried to find the surface, but he couldn't even figure out which way was up and which was down. The arm gave him another sharp tug and he felt his head suddenly break the water surface.

Trying to chough the water out of his lungs and make the hand let go of him at the same time, he almost didn't notice how the water temperature had drastically changed.

"Wha- What-!"

He seemed to be sitting in some sort of large bathtub. Though calling it a bathtub would be belittling it, last time he had seen such a big bath he had been soaking in Onsen with Kiku.

Water had changed from freezing cold to pleasantly warm and under any other circumstances he would have been content to relax right there and then.

"Ni hao," said the mystery man standing next to him, as if he was greeting an old friend over a cup of tea.

Arthur backed away so quickly he almost tripped and watched nervously at the stranger. The hand alone had been spooky enough he was rather frightened to find out there had been an actual person attached to it.

Deciding to ignore the fact that separated, yet still moving limbs scared him less than the people attached to the said limbs, he started to survey the room. Where _was _he? Where was the fountain? Where was the _park_? And last but not least, who was this man?

He narrowed his eyes warily at the Chinese looking man who was holding his hands up in calming manner. His eyes and hair were inky black and he was dressed in beautiful expensive looking blue robes. Arthur thought he looked vaguely familiar.

"Ayah, you don't have to be afraid" the Chinese man said in a soothing voice. "I mean you no harm aru."

Arthur contemplated his options for half a minute. He could panic but he doubted anything could be archived that way. He could also listen to this stranger and see what he wanted.

Arthur shot a suspicious glare at the somewhat familiar looking stranger, he was quite short for a man. If he attacked, Arthur could probably shove him out of his way and escape.

The black haired man visibly relaxed when Arthur gave him a tiny nod of understanding and stepped closer.

"Ah, I have some dry clothes here. Please feel free to put them on." he cautiously handed Arthur a pair of soft white pants and black robes similar to his own. Arthur accepted them and awkwardly wondered whatever he was expected to change clothes in front of the stranger.

Thankfully the black haired man seemed to realise his discomfort. "Oh, umm, I will go get us some tea, please join me in the study room." he gave Arthur a small bow and simply walked away without further instructions.

Arthur stared after the stranger then at his new clothes. This was… certainly a new situation. He quickly shed his wet clothing and spent over five minutes trying to tie the robes right. The outcome wasn't very comforting and reminded him of a sloppily tied bathrobe but it would have to do for now. There were more pressing issued, like where the hell was he?

He stepped out of the bathing room cautiously and was momentarily stunned by the sheer magnificence of the new room. Expensive looking blue silks were hanging on the walls. Windows were huge and the sheer detail that had been used on window panels made Arthur's head dizzy. There were warm looking carpets on the floor and the room was filled with books, scrolls and random pieces of paper.

He almost failed to see the mystery man who was setting small tea cups on a low table. He gave Arthur a look that was half shy and half curious and gestured the seat across from him.

"Please sit, I'm sure you have a lot to ask."

Anger suddenly lifted its head and gave no room for fear. He bloody well had a lot to ask!

He sat down on his seat, giving the stranger a scorching glare and remained silent.

The Chinese man shifted nervously under his glare and gave him an almost sheepish smile.

"I fear there is no easy way to tell this. Trust me I tried to think different ways to say this while you were changing aru." he swept a lock of black hair from his face. "To put it simply, this is not your world aru."

Arthur's thoughts came into crashing halt and he opened his mouth firs time in the stranger's presence. "I beg you pardon?" because certainly he had heard wrong. There was no way he was in a different world. He was not one of Kiku's books main characters that just happened to travel in time or jump into another world.

But then again, here he was, and how else could he explain his strange transition from his favourite park to this strange place. Didn't people always get dragged into other worlds by similar means. It certainly only happened in books but Arthur was someone who seriously believed in fairies, it wasn't too difficult to believe the stranger's words. Another world eh? He felt suddenly excited, that certainly didn't sound boring in the least.

"Not my world you say? That sounds certainly very interesting." he reached out his hand to shake the slightly dumbfounded man's hand. "My name is Arthur Kirkland, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The small Chinese man stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before remembering himself. "Ah, yes likewise, my name is Wang Yao. I am the current Jack of Spades." he smiled Arthur shyly. "Forgive me if I sound rude but you are taking this rather well."

Arthur shrugged his shoulders at the black haired man's questioning gaze. "It is… a rather popular past time in my world, to make up stories where ordinary high school students get caught up in all sorts of adventures." It was surprisingly hard to explain the concept of manga and anime to a person who had probably never heard of either of them. "I guess my sense of reality has been dulled by tv and fantasy books."

"I… see, aru." Yao said looking more puzzled than ever.

"Pray can you tell me what is this '_high-school-student'_. I'm very curious about your world, aru."

Arthur awkwardly scratched his ear, trying to think up the best way to explains such a common thing that everyone knew.

"Well, I'm a high school student. We study several different fields such as mathematics, biology, geography, history and foreign languages." he felt a little dissatisfied by his own explanation but Yao looked at him with awe in his eyes.

"Oh, you are philosopher? Then you must be well learned in arts of magic?"

Arthur mulled the question in his head for few seconds.

"Magic isn't used in my world anymore. Instead we use technology. It has countless different uses. You can talk to a person from another side of the country, as if they were standing beside you. You can fly to the other side of the world in twelve hours., and our cities are always full of light, even during night."

Yao's mouth was now hanging open and he looked deeply impressed.

"Ayah, your world sounds like an ideal world! Surely that means wars and conflicts are non-existent."

Arthur snorted loudly at those words.

"As if! It seems like there is always a war going on these days." Arthur smirked little at Yao's shocked expression.

"Also, because of our technology, weapons have evolved to be more deadly, and almost anyone with enough money can get them."

Huh, maybe he wasn't telling this right. When he said it like that, his world sounded like a very brutal place. But then again it was all true to a certain extent. Ignoring Yao's now pale face he sipped his tea and started describing different weapons.

"- and they fly over water and land faster than any bird. When they hit their target huge explosion will follow killing thousands of humans and leaving the air and land polluted for many years."

Hmm, perhaps he had gone little overboard with his descriptions, the little black haired man was lowering his tea cup with rather shaky fingers. "You seem to have… quite a situation in your world aru."

Arthur smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." They were in the need of change of topic and Arthur knew just the right thing to talk about. "Let's forget my world for now, I would like very much to hear about this world."

"Ah, of course." Yao nodded his head. " What do you want to know?"

Million questions exploded in Arthur's head like fireworks. How big was this world? how was it run? Did everyone use magic here? Why on earth had Arthur been summoned here? And most importantly how often did it rain here?

All very valid questions but sadly the first one to burst from Arthur's lips was-

"Do you have any unicorns here?"

Yao seemed little put out by Arthur's intense stare and suddenly excited tone of voice but answered nonetheless.

"Unicorns aru? Certainly we have some, but they are very shy creatures and tend to avoid humans. I myself have seen unicorns only twice in my whole life."

Arthur's heart was suddenly beating very fast and he felt excitement running through him. Unicorns. This world had real _unicorns_.

Arthur snapped out of his trance and decisively nodded his head. "Alright, it's been decided."

"Yao tilted his head in confusion, "Eh?"

"I'm moving in."

"_Eeeeeh_?"

**A/N; **I apologize for any possible grammar mistakes I made.


End file.
